Vaughn Ward; can we please have some sanity?

Dan Popkey has a piece in the Statesman today about Raul Labrador firing his campaign manager, apparently over poor fund raising. Popkey also goes to Labrador's primary opponent Vaughn Ward for some "reaction."

Along the way, Popkey talks about Ward's new TV ad featuring a pickup Ward borrowed from a supporter, Ward apparently not owning one himself, but also apparently wanting to use Scott Brown's (well- worn, tried and true) pitch of being a man of the people. Nothing says man ofthe people like a pickup truck, I guess.

Anyway, this quote from the ad jumped out at me.

Ward says, "Washington liberals are bankrupting our country. We need to send someone to Washington who will stand up to Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi. We need to return to our core values of strong families, strong national defense and lower taxes. And that's what I will do."

Okay Vaughn, I get that you have to play to the base to win the primary, and that statements is a tea-bagger thing of beauty. But if you win the primary, please grace us with some sanity. You won't need to come across as a wingnut to win every far-right in Idaho; you'll get those because of the "R" on your campaign ads.

You'll pick up more votes, I believe, if you can appeal to some of the moderates that Walt is trying to woo. And if you want to attract moderates, then 1) stop with the teabaggery already, and 2) act like you come from a reality based world.

You see, Obama has pretty much continued Bush's national defense policies, and in the case of a attacks on insurgent leaders, he's upped the ante with lots of drone air-strikes.

And as far as taxes go, there's this:

Meanwhile, taxes are at their lowest levels in 60 years, according to William Gale, co-director of the Tax Policy Center and director of the Retirement Security Project at the Brookings Institution.

And

The American people need to be reminded that 98 percent of Americans got a tax cut last year," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday.

Ward could earn my respect if he will eschew the absurd Republican spin and talking points and rally talk about issues facing the country. Propose some solutions; offer some ideas. If you do, that will be refreshing. Unfortunately, his first ad puts him squarely in the party of No. No ideas, not solutions, no progress. Just ridiculous opposition to any effort to try and improve things for America.